Through the Rift
by Doctor Wheel
Summary: Sequel to The Rift. Fifteen years had past since the events of The Rift- BLU team is dead and RED had moved on. Life couldn't be more normal for these mercs, that is until a figure in a green cloak and a cyan blue girl show up and tell them some horrific news: their new friends had been captured by a new evil that has risen. Rated T for violence and language.
1. Prologue

_Fifteen years had passed._

 _Fifteen years since a robotic wolf ended up in the desert._

 _Fifteen years since he and his family made friends with the people there._

 _Fifteen years since they defeated two evils that roam the multiverse._

 _Fifteen years...a lot can change within that time..._

 _Since their departure from this world, things have gone for worse for the mercenaries down at Teufort. A malfunction with Respawn killed the entire BLU team, and as a result the RED team was dismissed from their jobs. With the exception of the RED Engineer and Pyro, each merc left the town to pursuit another career._

 _Now with each merc living a life of a civilian, it would seem that life would be normal for once for RED._

 _But then again...when were these mercs ever normal in the first place?_

* * *

 **Allied Log Book**

 **Dimension: 324-014**

 **Planet: 12-Goldilocks (Allied HQ)**

 **Time: 05:23**

 **Date: Unknown**

 **Threat Level: BLACK (I** **mminent** **or active danger)**

 **Transmission start...**

 **'radio static'**

 **Ground Commander: Headquarters to ISDF- all ships please check in.**

 **Admiral Jacob: S.S Orion here.**

 **Admiral Saul: S.S Juniper a-ok.**

 **Admiral Laurel: S.S Alpine reporting in!**

 **Admiral Evan: S.S Mars is here.**

 **Ground Commander: Anything going on up there, Admirals?**

 **Saul: No sir, we haven't seen anything that entered the perimeter. It's actually quite quiet up here.**

 **Evan: Yeah...too quiet. I'll run a scan again to make sure we never missed anything.**

 **Laurel: So how's life down there Commander?**

 **Ground Commander: Ehh, it's ok. Kinda boring as well. Ever since the Federation was shook up fifteen years ago, the guys haven't had much to do.**

 **Jacob: I agree, but I wonder what happened to them anyways after they ran off...**

 **Evan: Uh oh.**

 **Ground Commander: What is it, you pick up something?**

 **Evan: Yeah...more like somethings.**

 **Laurel: Our scanners just picked something up too. Holy crap...**

 **Ground Commander: Is it Federation-**

 **Jacob: No...**

 **'BOOM!'**

 **Ground Commander: What was that?**

 **Evan: That was the S.S Juniper! Something just took her down! S.S Mars to S.S Juniper come in! Saul? Anyone?!**

 **Jacob: Multiple warships inbound! I repeat! Multiple warships inbound!**

 **'BOOM!'**

 **Laurel: SHIT!**

 **Ground Commander: Alpine are you ok?**

 **Laurel: Yes we are. Luckily our shields blocked most of the damage.**

 **Ground Commander: ISDF get your asses out of there! Do not engage, you are outnumbered!**

 **Evan: Affirmative!**

 **Ground Commander: This is Ground Commander radioing out to all channels. Allied HQ is under attack. I repeat Allied HQ is under attack. Threat Level is code BLACK. This is not a drill!**

 **'radio static'**

 **Transmission end...**


	2. Notice about the Reviews

**So reviews are currently not working for Daughter of a Genius and a Manic and Through the Rift. To compromise, just P.M me your reviews. Just make the subject of the P.M which story you're reviewing.**

 **-D.W**


	3. Chapter 1: The Return

**A/N: Here we go mates! Now again, I don't own TF2. T** **he OCs involved in this story are from Bayoboo, claytronus02, Doctor Homicide 157, Corruption Virus, and eclipseddarksoul** **. And I'm happy to say that reviews are working once again, so review away!**

 **Note: I HIGHLY recommend that you read The Rift first, to understand what is going on, and as well as my profile, for my OCs, since I will NOT be explaining in-depth MY OCs.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1- The Return**_

(Unknown POV)

It was so sudden. There was no time to prepare. One moment everything was all fine and dandy and then 'BANG!' everything went to hell.

The Ground Commander issued the threat level to the highest level: black. Never in the history of the Allies we've went to the highest level, at least that's what I think.

Hey, give me a break alright? I'm over a thousand years old, a lot of things can happen ok?

My name's Jackie. I'm one of the co-founders of the Allies and cousin to its leader: Wheel. You know...the guy that wears a blue hood and cloak with green colored tactical gear, wields a katana, and can bend space and time like clay. Yeah him.

I'm a bit shorter than him (he's like 5' 10' and I'm like three-four inches shorter), and wear a green cloak and hood with red and black tactical gear.

What's that? Why am I only describing what we wear? The explanation is simple...sorta.

You see, only people in our family can know what we actually look like, some kind of culture thing. Heck, you can't even see our faces through the hood. I would explain the rest but it's kinda hard to do that when you have a wolf from hell trying to bite your head in half.

I was using one of my knifes to prop open the large, lava colored wolf's mouth as I struggled to get out from under its paws while simultaneously stabbing the hell out of it.

"Die, die, DIE!" I yelled before realizing how dumb I was. "Oh yeah, I can teleport,"

I teleported from under the wolf to on top of it, and plunged a knife into its head. The wolf staggered before falling to the ground dead.

"Bad doggie," I said as I retrieved my knife.

I got up from the wolf and turned around, and started heading back to HQ. I was exploring the forest when I got the call that HQ was under attack, I was about to head back when this thing pounced on me. From my knowledge of the creatures that live in this forest, this was not a creature that lived here at all.

As I raced back to HQ, I heard the noise of engines fly above me. I looked up to find large, menacing dropships flying overhead headed to the direction to the base. I quickened my running to a blur, dodging trees and over rocks in the process. I made it out of the forest to find enemies already engaging our troops at the garrison.

Allied HQ is located on top of a hill with one narrow road leading up to it, which is guarded by a garrison. Aerial attack is nearly impossible without casualties since of the large amount of anti-air defenses. I looked to see that parts of the garrison, as well as the actual HQ were either destroyed or on fire.

"Kill..."

I jumped at the sudden sound. I turned to find what said that.

It looked to be a large knight. It looked similar to Shiv, except for the fact that its armor was colored magenta, it was extremely big, both vertically and horizontally, and was carrying a large battle axe that rivaled a small car.

"Uh, hi?" I said as I waved nervously at the big guy.

The knight roared and brought its axe down with surprising speed. I rolled just in time as it came down where I was standing. The axe slammed into the earth with a deafening boom.

 **'BOOM!'**

The knight wrestled the axe free and prepared its next attack. I used the time to pull out a rocket launcher from subspace and blast the knight.

Side note: I have a strange ability to pull things out of practically nowhere. I have no idea how it works, but it's very good thing to have when you're in a pickle.

The blast did not affect the knight at all and instead made it more pissed at me. It walked back a few steps before running at me at full speed. I was about to teleport away from it when it fell to the ground; its torso was separated from its legs. I looked up to find who saved me.

Wheel.

"I can't leave you alone for a minute can't I?" he said with a huff as he holstered his katana.

* * *

(Third-person POV)

"Aww c'mon, I had it!" Jackie whined.

"Yeah right," Wheel said. "You really think a rocket launcher is going to stop that?"

Jackie sighed. "I thought it was a good idea,"

"Let's go, the garrison needs our help," he said as he unsheathed his katana and started running at full speed, with Jackie following suit.

The Allied troops stationed at the garrison were being pinned down by massive amounts of gunfire. The soldiers that were shooting at them wore similar suits of armor that the behemoth wore, but each soldier wasn't as tall or big as the knight was. However it seemed that nothing was penetrating their armor.

"God dammit!" a Gunner yelled as his hat was blown off by a bullet. "They just keep coming and I don't think we're doing anything to them!"

"Just shut up and keep firing!" a Sharpshooter said. "What the hell are they wearing?" she said as another railgun shot bounced off a knight with an LMG.

Suddenly all the knights stopped firing. One by one, each fell into piles of scrap. The troops slowly came out of their hiding spots to find their leaders quietly talking among themselves.

"So what are they?" Jackie asked.

"I have no idea," Wheel responded. "They don't appear to be allied with any of our known existing enemies,"

"Wheel, Jackie, thank the gods you two showed up!" an Officer said as he ran up to the two.

"What's the situation, Officer?" Wheel asked.

"About thirty minutes ago, several unidentified warships came undetected into the atmosphere. They destroyed the S.S Juniper and heavily damaged the S.S Alpine. Ground Commander ordered the ISDF to retreat until further notice, while we just hold of the invaders. The Gang is holding off the enemy at the backside of the base, while the Crew is holding down the valley entrance,"

"I just hope they're ok," Jackie said.

"No they're not," a Rocket Soldier said as he ran towards the two. "We've received reports that both the back entrance and the valley entrance had both been taken by the enemy, no signs of either team,"

"Dammit," Wheel muttered. "How long did they fight?"

"They were holding considerably well on their own, but our scans show a huge surge of power at the area when they stopped fighting," he said. "This was about a minute ago,"

"Meeting in conference room in five minutes," Wheel said. "No excuses,"

* * *

(Wheel's POV)

Why does shit have to go down whenever I step away from the base? I leave to help a fellow friend and the next thing I know shit is raining down from the sky and spewing the depths of hell on the front lawn. I slammed my fist on the window I was looking out, but not hard enough to damage it even more.

Invasions like this had happened before, with the Federation and a certain army led by a bipedal wolf that I desperately want to slap in the face for being a complete ass. But never before I've heard of the Gang or Crew disappearing just like that. Sure they've been captured before, but all at once? That's unheard of.

"So I presume you heard the news?" I turned to find Evie, the turncoat sorceress with an affinity for trench coats. She's been on close surveillance and guard duty at the HQ ever since she turned her back on both her sister and the Federation.

I nodded in response to her question. "Any idea what happened to them?"

She shook her head. "I wish I knew Wheel," she said. "But I know it had to be something powerful,"

"You're right about that," I said as I turned back to the window. I was about to say something else when I stopped myself.

Something wasn't right.

My hand went straight for my katana as I spun around and made contact with a large broadsword. I teleported into a better position and took a stance while looking over my attacker.

The thing that attacked me looked like a knight with a Viking helmet. He was an inch or so taller than me, and I couldn't see his face from the slits of the Viking helmet. He wore a long and tattered black cape as well.

"I'm surprised you were able to block that," he said. "Most people don't see it coming,"

I glanced behind him to find Evie clutching her bleeding side. "I don't know who you are," I said. "But if you're the one behind this..."

"And if I'm not?"

"You're still fucked because you injured my teammate,"

"So be it," he said as we charged each other.

* * *

(Jackie's POV)

"It's been ten minutes," an Officer said. "And he says we're late,"

The group of Officers were getting impatient in the conference room that I was in. I don't know what happened to Wheel, since he's never late to meeting he calls. I pondered where he could be when I felt a tug on my cloak. I looked down to find a cyan blue girl clutching my green cloak. She was about as high as my waist, and had navy blue eyes, but what was strange about this was her shape wasn't truly defined. She wasn't a human.

She's a slime.

Her name's Skyla, a science experiment that escaped the evil scientists who created her. Arachne stumbled upon near a fast-food establishment in dimension 212-515 about a year or so ago, and quickly became attached to her. In fact, everyone quickly took a liking to the young slime. Why? Cause she's so goddam cute! I swear, it's impossible to frown when she's around.

As a slime, she's can take the form of anything, and I mean ANYTHING. And it doesn't matter how large or small it is. (She once turned into a full-sized dragon at one point) Right now, she's taken on a humanoid form, her body is gender-neutral but leans more to the feminine side, and her "hair" is about waist-length and is extremely poofy.

"Auntie Jackie?" she said. "What is going on?"

I smiled as I kneeled down to her height. "Oh nothing Skyla, just some bad guys who's up to no good,"

"Nothing bad is going to happen, right?"

"I'm positive everything will be fine,"

Just then something crashed through the doors, taking the steel doors off their hinges. The Officers drew their revolvers while I summoned my knives. It looked like the knight I fought earlier but it wasn't as large as it. He had a large hole right where his chest was supposed to be.

"Sorry if I'm late," I heard Wheel said as he and Evie walked into the room. "I was busy," I noticed that he was supporting her. One arm was draped around him while another clutched a sword wound. He lowered her to the ground.

"Evie!" I asked. "You ok?"

"Yeah, that dead bast-er guy got the jump on me," she said. "Not like I endured worse before,"

"You need healing?"

"Nah, I got it,"

"So what did you call us here for Wheel?" an Officer asked.

Wheel cleared his throat. "I'm assuming you all heard about the disappearance of the Gang and Crew, right?" he said.

Everyone in the room nodded.

"We need a team that can cover for them until we can find more about their whereabouts,"

"But whom?" someone asked. "I doubt anyone or any group will step up just to take their place, considering how dangerous their work is,"

The room was silenced, the only sound was an explosion in the distance, signaling that the battle was not won just yet.

"Wait, Wheel," I said. "What about...what were their names...oh yeah- the RED and BLU teams...? You know the people that helped Wolfshire, Arachne, etc from the rift incident fifteen years ago?"

"Dimension 938-173," he pondered. "Oh yeah, those guys..."

"Who are those guys again?" an Officer asked.

"They're mercs hired by both Reliable Excavations and Demolitions and Builders' League United," Evie said as she stood up, her left hand still glowing from her healing spell. "They helped us in the battle against both the D.E.T and the Federation,"

"What makes them qualified?"

"Each team is made up of nine people, or classes, each has a unique set of skills that make them look not as normal," Evie explained. "For an example, the Scout can run up to seventeen miles per hour..."

"So he can run fast, whoop de do,"

Evie glared at him. "...he also can stay at that speed for extended periods, and mind you, the fastest human can only run _fifteen_ miles per hour and that's only for a few seconds,"

A few of the other Officers nodded. "I'm listening,"

Evie went on to explain the rest of the classes. "And finally we have the Pyro, however I must say that the RED Pyro in particular is quite abnormal..."

"Why's that?"

"She may be an alpha fire elemental,"

"You don't sound too sure about that,"

"Neither am I," Wheel said.

"Why's that?"

"She's a fire elemental, that is what we can soundly say," Wheel said. "The part we're not sure about is the alpha part,"

"Why not?" Skyla asked.

"From what I heard from the others and Evie, she was capable of using her elemental abilities without much problem for the very first time, but then again, I'm not sure if she was going all out, and the fact that her elemental dragon was absent,"

Another pause.

"I'm liking it," an Officer said.

"But how will they react?" someone else said. "We just can't force them to work,"

"Then bribe them," I said.

"Jackie..."

"They're mercs Wheel, they'll do anything for money, right?"

"But how are we going to get the money to pay them?"

I rolled my eyes (metaphorically, no one can see them unless I take off my hood), and started pulling bags of money out from behind me. "Um, helloooo?" I said. "I can just do this?"

"Oh, I forgot you can do that..."

A blast rattled the base, knocking everyone down except for Wheel, who somehow stayed up.

"Ok then, Jackie since it's your plan get them will you?"

"Oh, oh! Can I come? Can I come please!" Skyla begged me.

"Wheel..."

"Just take her, I don't think the base safe for her right now, even though she can't get killed, I think,"

"Wheel!" a Swordsman ran into the room. "The enemy had taken the main garrison!"

"Got it," he said. "Jackie, start going,"

"Are you going to be ok?" I asked as I opened a rift.

He gave me a blank look (again, metaphorical) in response. "Never mind, c'mon Sky!" I said as I grabbed her by her hand, and jumped into the rift.

* * *

(Wheel's POV)

"Are you sure she'll be ok?" Evie asked me as she put her fedora back on. "I mean she's not capable as you..."

"She'll be fine," I said as I drew my katana. "Think of it as a test,"

She nodded in response. We made our way to the main entrance of the HQ. Allied soldiers hurried to engage the attacking force, and took cover behind anything they could find.

"Do you have any idea who wants to attack us?" I asked Evie as she picked up a rifle.

"No, I was going to ask you the same thing,"

 **'BOOM!'**

We turned to find the large blast doors blown open and enemy soldiers began pouring into the HQ.

"For some reason, I'm not surprised at this," I said.

Then a huge magma colored dragon tore through the remains of the doors and roared.

"Wasn't expecting that, but still not surprised," I said as I leapt into battle and sunk my katana into the first knight I saw.

* * *

(Jackie's POV)

 **'SMACK!'**

Ok...OW! Landing face first into dirt and rocks is not a pleasant experience.

 **'SPLAT!'**

And that was the sound of Skyla landing on me.

"Yay! Fun!" she said.

"Woo fun...now get of me please," I said.

As she did, I got up and dusted myself off. I looked around and found...

Nothing.

Of course I found nothing, we've landed in the middle of a desert for crying out loud.

Nah, just joking with you. We landed in front of RED HQ.

A very dilapidated, RED HQ.

Uh oh, not good.

"This is going to be harder than I thought,"

* * *

 **A/N: And there you go folks. Chapter 1. Here are the character names of the OCs submitted:**

 **Bayoboo: Skyla**

 **Doctor Homicide 157: Doctor Homicide**

 **Corruption Virus: CV**

 **eclipseddarksoul: Kit**

 **claytronus02: Clayton/Dusk**

 **Till next time,**

 **-D.W**


	4. Chapter 2: Meet the Conaghers

**A/N: And here is the next chapter. Here we go!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2: Meet the Conaghers**_

(Jackie's POV)

This is not good. Not good at all. Why the heck is RED base in shambles? I mean sure it's been long since we've last seen them (Wheel and I checked the mercs out before hand, shortly after the Gang returned), but jeez, what happened?

"Is the building supposed to be like that?" Skyla asked.

"No...c'mon, let's look inside," I said.

"B-b-but it looks scary,"

"Aww, don't worry" I bent down to her. "I'll make sure nothing happens to us, ok? Just stay close,"

We slowly made our way into the building, checking our backs every few seconds just so nothing was sneaking up on us. The HQ was slowly being reclaimed by nature and the outside world; a occasional critter scurried past us on the ground, dust and sand were in small piles next to the walls and covered almost everything, windows were broken, walls were defaced by spray paint and holes.

 _"I hope nothing bad happened to them,"_ I thought.

Just then I heard voices.

"CV, stop being a lazy ass and help me with these boxes!" one said.

"Yeah, yeah, don't need to lose your marbles over it," another said.

I motioned to Skyla to quietly follow me as I headed to the source of the voices.

* * *

 **Earlier**

(Unknown POV)

 **'BEEP! BEEP BEEP!'**

"Crap..." I said as I furiously tried to slap my alarm clock. I have no idea why, but for some reason I set my alarm clock on a SATURDAY. "Ugh, why?" I moaned.

I glared at the offending device and read the time.

7:40

Wait what? My alarm usually goes off at 6 or 6:30.

As I pondered a possible solution, I heard a snicker. I turned over and found someone standing near the doorway chuckling to his or her self.

CV.

 _"Oh you gotta be kidding me,"_ I thought as I hardened my gaze at the robot.

I should introduce myself. My name's Heather, and that sonabitch over there is my "brother" CV. And yes he is a robot.

He was built by my dad about three years ago (he's an inventor), to be some kind of war robot/soldier. He had a computer monitor for a head and wore a red sweater and black pants. And he also had a very lackadaisical attitude as well. But there was one slight problem: a month or so after he was built, he was infected by some kind of computer virus.

How'd we figure it out? Well, my dad kinda found out first hand when a locked on rocket suddenly headed straight for him for no apparent reason. (He's fine) Turns out his weapons systems, which included lots of guns and explosives, can glitch out and either misfire or not work at all.

Luckily that was the only thing that affected CV, so yay?

"Dammit CV!" I yelled at him. "Not cool!"

"So?" he said as he flashed a question mark on his monitor, before returning to his purple eyes.

"This is the few days of the week I get sleep in!"

"Whatever," he said and walked out of my room.

I sighed as he left. Welp, I'm up now. No use going back to sleep. I tossed the covers off and changed out of my sleep clothes to what I usually wear (brown tanktop under an unbuttoned red flannel shirt, dark green jean shorts, and brown shoes). I took a look in my mirror so I could put my black hair in a ponytail. I'm bit on the heavier side, like 150-160 lbs. Some of it is muscle, some of it is fat. Also I'm a slightly taller than girls my age, about a couple of inches or so. But something that stands out is my eyes are colored red, like blood red. My parent and I have no idea why it is like that, but I didn't complain.

I picked up a red and black cap that was on my dresser and I left for the kitchen.

* * *

(Third-Person POV)

Dell wiped his forehead as he rolled out from under his truck. He was making sure the ten year old vehicle was still up and running.

"Dad? You out here?"

He looked up to find his fifteen year old daughter walk into the garage. He smiled.

"Morning sweetie," he said.

"Morning," she replied as she saw him. "Whattya doing?"

"Oh nothing, just making sure the truck still works,"

She sat next to him. "So where's mom?"

Dell wiped his head again with a towel. "She went into town to buy more groceries, she left about thirty minutes ago,"

"Oh,"

"Why? Need something Heather?"

"No I was just wondering,"

They sat in silence.

"Hey, why you're up this early?" Dell asked. "I thought you wanted to sleep in,"

"Well I did, but a certain robot made my alarm go off," she replied with a huff.

"Heh, that thing does have a sense of humor,"

"Not helping dad,"

Dell coughed. "Sorry... want to help me with something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I need to get some things back at RED HQ, get CV will yah?"

Heather nodded and walked off to get the robot.

As she walked away, Dell let out a sigh. He never liked going back to there, it brought back too many bad memories of that fateful day. But many of his tools and gadgets were stored there, as the house had no place to store them. He picked up the hardhat that was on the workbench and plopped it on his head.

 **Present**

"Stop being lazy and make yourself useful!" Heather yelled as she threw a dusty couch cushion at CV. The cushion hit CV in his "face" and a plume of dust covered the robot.

"Ok! You don't have to get so worked up about it," he replied as he rolled his "eyes" and dusted himself off.

Heather pushed a box of parts to the robot before picking up a box of her own. The two walked out of the room to her dad's truck.

* * *

Jackie watched the two leave from the shadows. She didn't know who the two were or what they were doing here. Then she saw someone that she did recognize:

The RED Engineer.

The Texan placed a box down before wiping his face with a rag he kept in his pocket. Instead of his normal work attire, he wore a red colored collared shirt and brown pants. He still had his hardhat, but was missing his trademark goggles.

Jackie wanted to just go out there and greet him, but she was unsure of doing so. She had no idea how'd he would react when he saw her, much less Skyla.

"Um, Jackie," Skyla said, tugging on her cape.

"Not now, I'm trying to think," Jackie replied.

"But Jackie,"

"Be quiet! Do you want us to be caught?"

"Well who do we have here?" a voice behind her silencing her. She whipped around to find the robot suddenly behind her. "I don't think you two supposed to be here,"

* * *

 **'CRASH!'**

Engi looked up at the sound. Instinctively he took out his shotgun from the book and went to investigate the noise. He only took a few steps before he found CV tumbling head over heels out of the darkness. He lowered the gun.

"CV, what are you doing?" he said with a sigh.

"Oh nothing, just getting kicked around like a can by some hooded figure," he said to the ground.

"What?"

"Someone attacked me,"

"More like you attacked _me,_ " Engi turned his attention to the new person walking out of the darkness. He figured it was a girl because of her voice. She was around the same height as Heather, and wore a green hood, which obscured her face, and a matching green cloak. "This is not how I wanted to met you Mr. Conagher,"

"Who are you?" he growled as he raised his shotgun at the figure. "And how'd you know my name?"

"Name's Jackie," she replied, totally ignoring the fact that Engi was pointing a gun at her as she walked up towards him. "And to answer your second question, well... let's just say it was from a little "incident" we had like, um, I dunno, fifteen years ago?"

Engi blinked in response.

"Hm, I guess I should make it a little easier for you. Does the name Wolfshire ring a bell?"

Engi lowered the shotgun, but still had it aimed at her. "How'd you know him?"

"That's easy! I'm the second in command of the Allies," she replied. "He works and lives with us,"

"How can I be sure your not-"

"-someone from the D.E.T or the Federation?" Jackie finished for him. "Look buddy, if I was from there I wold kick your ass right now like how I did with your little stalker bot there,"

"Oh feisty," CV said.

"So what brings you here? Is anyone with you?" Engi asked.

"Yes, she's-"

"Hey dad!" Everyone looked up to find Heather run into the room with a blue colored girl on her shoulders. "You wouldn't believe what I found," she took her off and showed her to him. "Isn't she adorable,"

"Hi!" the girl said. "My name is Skyla!"

"My god that is cute as hell," CV said. "Now why is she blue?"

"Cause I'm a slime, silly!" she said giggling.

Heather turned slightly and noticed Jackie. "Hey, who's that?" she asked.

"Name's Jackie, yours?"

"Um..."

"Heather, she's an old friend," Engi whispered to her.

"Heather..."

"Ok, now who's over there?"

"Oh that's CV," Engi replied. "I built him some time ago,"

"Yo,"

"So, Jackie," Engi said. "Is this the person you came with you?" he said pointing to Skyla.

"Yes,"

"Is there anyone else?"

"No, just us,"

Engi nodded. "So what brings you here?"

Jackie shifted uncomfortably. "About that..."

"Bad people came and bad things happened," Skyla said. "It was scary,"

"That's putting it lightly Skyla,"

"Dad, can you come for a second?" Heather said.

"Hey! Don't leave me with her!" CV said to the two as they left.

Engi and Heather walked out of the dilapidated living room and into one of the darkened hallways. As soon as they were out of an earshot, Heather said,

"Who the heck are they?"

Engi thought for a moment, explaining this was complicated to someone outside of the merc group was hard. "You know the stories Mom told you when you were younger?"

"The ones with her imaginary friend, Mr. Balloonacorn?"

"No, the one with us and your uncles in them,"

Heather pursed her lips as she thought back. "Wait a sec, so everything that happened in the story, actually happened?"

Engi nodded. "Yes, that all happened, fifteen years ago,"

"And I thought Mom had an overactive imagination... wait so she ca-omigod that is so awesome!" she squealed.

 _"Hm, she took it better than I've expected,"_ Engi thought.

"My parents are so cool! I can't wait to tell everyone els-" she stopped talking when Engi put a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't think you should tell them, hon,"

"Why not?"

"One, I highly doubt they will believe you, and two your mother isn't so, how should I say this, open to using her fire powers in front of strangers,"

"And I rather not have such rumors spreading around," Jackie said as she 'magically' appeared next to Heather, causing her to jump.

"How long where you listening to us?" Engi asked.

"Jeezus, don't do that," Heather added.

"About the entire thing, sorry, habit," Jackie replied. "Adding on what I said earlier, we kinda have a lot to worry about already, so let's not add more, can we?"

"Worry about? What do we have to worry about?"

"It's kinda a long story and I rather not repeat it...um Engi what happened to everyone else?"

Engi looked at the teen before looking down.

"Well, you see...RED moved on to other things, as you can see. For BLU... they're dead,"

"W-w-what happened? Were you guys attacked?"

"Two years ago..."

* * *

 _Flashback_

 _It was just another day in the gravel pits, RED and BLU were fighting yet another battle without a reasonable cause. Today they were fighting at one of the oldest battle sites, 2Fort._

 _The battle started as usual, both Scouts made their way to the bridge that separated both bases in an effort to capture their respective briefcases before the Engineers could set up their defenses, while the power classes made their way to the bridge to duke it out. The Snipers took their usual positions in the battlements, and the Spies took the sewer route._

 _The only difference in this battle was the weapons the mercs were using. Ever since the "Rift Incident" that happened fifteen years ago, the mercs acquired some "interesting" weaponry that made for some equally interesting situations._

 _For example, during a battle at Hightower. Heavy shot BLU Scout at close range with a minigun that shoots small rockets, dubbed "The Rocker". The explosion sent the Russian high into the air. Everyone momentarily stopped fighting as they watched him soar through the air._

 _"What the..." Spy said._

 _"Heavy is flying!"_

 _It looked almost beautiful, until he crashed landed on top of BLU Spy._

 _But what was the most different in this battle was the RED Pyro and her new "abilities". Initially, she wasn't allowed to participate due to the fact that she can burn to death anyone in the BLU team in an instant, but the Administrator reversed this decision with some adjustments._

 _Pyro wasn't allowed to use her abilities unless it's absolutely needed, and her Respawn timer was significantly increased._

 _Since the "Rift Incident", Pyro grew her hair to around shoulder length and now wore a partial gas mask (M17 gas mask for those wondering) that only covered her face. And wore a slightly less baggy fireproof suit. It was still baggy, but it was tight enough to tell that the wearer was female._

 _Now we return to the battle, right now RED just rolled the BLU team by killing all of them and Scout had no problem capping the intel._

 _"Yeah! Too easy!" Scout said as he dropped the briefcase onto the table._

 _"Nice job," Engi said as he leveled up his sentry to level three. "Just get two more and we're done for the day!"_

 _"Yah, gotcha!" but before Scout could run off an explosion rocked the entire base. Both men fell to the ground._

 _"What the hell? Engi what was that?"_

 _"I don't know Scout," Engi said as he got up._

 _Just then an alarm went off, red lights lit up the room._

 _"ALERT! Stop fighting! Ceasefire is in effect!" the Administrator shouted through the intercoms. "I repeat, ceasefire is in effect!"_

 _Engi hurried to a callbox and grabbed the phone. The callbox was only used if the mercs needed to contact the Administrator directly and was used in extreme emergencies. "Helen, what's going on?" he asked as she picked up. The Engineers and Ms. Pauling were the only people that could call the Administrator by her first name._

 _"Mr. Conagher," she said. "Something happened in BLU's Respawn, I don't know what caused it but you must hurry, since your team wiped BLU..."_

 _"My god," Engi slammed the phone back on the receiver and quickly packed up the dispenser. "C'mon Scout! We gotta go!"_

 _"What's going on hardhat?"_

 _"I'll tell you on our way there, if we don't hurry BLU's going to die...forever,"_

 _The explosion was also heard and felt by the other members of the RED team._

 _"Oi! What just happened?" Demo asked as he helped Pyro up. The two were camping with Heavy and Medic in front of BLU's main spawn._

 _"I don't know Tavish, but that doesn't sound good," Pyro's voice was still muffled, but it wasn't to the point you couldn't understand her at all._

 _"I think something's wrong down there," Soldier said as he emerged from the spiral ramp on fire._

 _"You're on fire you know that right?" Pyro said as the others stared in disbelief._

 _"I am?" he looked down. "Oh...fire! Fire! FIRE!" he said as he started to panic._

 _Pyro waved a hand and the fire disappeared, putting out the flaming Soldier. Earlier on, she discovered that not only she can create fires, but also control them as well, which makes putting things that are not supposed to be on fire out._

 _"Incoming! Gotta move that gear up!" the group looked to find Engi followed by Scout and Sniper approach them. Engi put down the dispenser he was carrying._

 _"What's going on laborer?" Spy asked as he uncloaked._

 _"Are we being attacked by space invaders again?" Soldier added. "I'll beat the everlasting crap out of them once again!"_

 _"No, something's wrong with BLU's Respawn, and by the looks of it, if we don't hurry..."_

 _"...they'll die," Spy finished. Despite having a general disgust for each other, after the incident RED and BLU had gotten closer as friends, and only acted like enemies on the battlefield._

 _"The entrance to the Respawn machine is located in the intel room, we gotta hurry!" Engi said._

 _"But how are we going to get down there, the entire basement here is on fi- oh wait, never mind," Scout remembered that one of his teammates could control fire on a whim._

 _The RED team hurried their way down to BLU's Respawn room, but by the time they arrived it was too late._

* * *

"And after that we were dismissed from our jobs," Engi concluded. "Without someone to fight, what's the use of keeping us? Eventually, Pyro and I settled down in a house close by and, welp, the rest is history. Heavy, Medic, and Sniper left back to their home countries, Scout went back to Boston, Demo to his mother. The only two people I have no idea where they are is Soldier and Spy,"

 _"Great, this is just swell,"_ Jackie thought. _"Things couldn't get any better,"_

"So what brings you here?" Engi asked.

She sighed before starting, "About a couple hours, Allied HQ was attacked by an unknown attacking force. We were completely surprised and overwhelmed by the ambush and in the resulting chaos both the Gang and Crew were captured,"

"C-c-captured? How?" Engi sputtered.

"Members of the Gang and Crew had been captured before, but everyone was captured _all at once_ ," Jackie explained. "This is highly unusual since, well, it never happened before,"

"But, why did you come here? Should you be helping?"

"Well, considering the Gang and Crew make up more than half of our forces, we were considering using RED and BLU as replacements until we can find them again, but now 'sigh' that plan is dead,"

"What makes you think we're capable replacements? I mean Arachne did take down the entire BLU team and Ms. Pauling all by herself,"

"So what? You guys defeated multiple supernatural and robotic enemies and successfully infiltrated the Federation camp without getting killed, that counts right?"

"Jackie, we're not mercs anymore, and besides, we don't have Respawn anymore," Engi said. "As much as I want to help, I'd rather not die forever,"

Jackie let out a sigh. "Well, I can't force you to come..." she suddenly trailed off. "Uh oh,"

"What now?"

"A rift opened up somewhere nearby, and, oh dear that's not good. Engi we have to leave NOW," she grabbed both him and Heather and sped off to where CV and Skyla was.

* * *

(Jackie's POV)

You know when I said things couldn't get any more worse? Remind me to slap myself in the face several more times than the usual amount because of me and my big mouth. I sensed a rift opening inside the RED HQ and also detected multiple, possible hostile, things coming out of it as well. I pondered what the things could be as I ran down the hallway.

"Halt!"

I skidded to a stop as I rounded a corner. It was those fucking knights again. A dozen or so lined the hallway with their weapons drawn and aimed right towards me and my two friends.

"Shit!" I said as I went back around the corner as bullets dotted the wall where I was once standing.

"Who are they?" Engi as he took a potshot from around the corner.

"You know the people/things that attacked our base? Yeah, that's them," I replied as I took out a knife and charged back into the fray.

"Wait! You'll die!"

I never heard Engi's command as I sprinted towards the knights. I effortlessly dodged or blocked gunfire coming my way as I slashed the air in front of me with my knife. I slowed as I neared the first knight and touched him. He fell into a heap of blood and metal. His friends ended up in a similar matter a few seconds later.

"Stop gawking and get your ass up," I said to Engi without looking at him.

We made our way to the now-war torn living room and found out that both CV and Skyla were handling themselves quite well. The robot returned fire with one of knights' gun, occasionally a retractable blade would find a way into a knight as he picked up another gun.

Skyla's, on the other hand, fighting was a bit more unique. Being a slime, she couldn't be hurt through any normal means, bullets and blades simply went through her. Her fighting style relied heavily on her shapeshifting ability. One moment she's morphed her arm into a sword and slicing off limbs, the next she's a giant man-eating venus flytrap gobbling up knights like potato chips.

"You know you're going to get a stomachache if you eat them that fast, right?" I said to the blue venus flytap.

She gave something equivalent to a shrug before picking up another knight in her mouth.

"Jackie! Is this it?" I looked around for Engi and found him engaging some knights that were guarding a large blue, circular rift that was in what used to be a kitchen.

"Yup,"

"How are we going to close it?"

"Like this," I snapped my fingers and the portal instantly closed.

"That...was easy,"

"LET GO OF ME YOU PIECE OF SCRAP!"

We wiped around to find Heather behind held up my a leg by a knight that looked similar to what I fought back at the HQ. She was frantically shooting the knight with a pistol.

"Heather!" Engi shouted as he rushed over to her. I ran as well, I wasn't going to let this trashcan walk over my friend like that.

We were about a foot away from the knight when a black and red hammer exploded out of its chest armor. The knight staggered before falling to the ground, dead, and dropping Heather in the process. The hammer continued to fly, hitting any other knights that it came across before returning to its owner.

The owner of the hammer was a woman around her late thirties. She was wearing a red, unzipped hoodie over a yellow bikini top with an unbuttoned, khaki colored shorts held up by a belt, and brown boots. Her was tied in a ponytail, and was alternating between a yellow-orange-and red color, giving it the appearance that it was on fire. And her eyes were a bright shade of red, similar to Heather's.

"Get your filthy hands off my daughter," she said.

* * *

(Heather's POV)

"Mom!" I shouted as I ran to her. Never before in my life I was so happy to see her. "Wow, you look stunning," I said as we embraced.

"Thanks honey, you're not hurt are you?" she said as she quickly looked me over.

"I'm ok mom,"

"Ana!" I heard Dad said as he hurried over to us. "You sure came in the nick of time, but how'd you know we needed help here?"

"Instincts, Dell,"

"Um, kinda hate to break up this tender moment but they're still coming!" CV yelled as a large blue portal opened up in the same place where it was before. More knights poured out of it.

"Behind you!" I heard Jackie yell. I turned to find a knight appeared from another portal that appeared behind us and was ready to shoot Mom. Without thinking, I ran at the knight and barreled right into it.

I realized too late that by doing this I inadvertently knocked both of us into the portal.

Well shit.

* * *

 **A/N: Bam! There's chapter two guys. See yah!**

 **-D.W**


	5. Chapter 3: Battle of Allied HQ

**'Transmission start'**

 **'static'**

 **H-H-hrzzzzz-Hello?**

 **'static'**

 **I-hrrtz-hing-on?**

 **Hello? Oh there we go. Sorry about that, where I am right now is not exactly the ideal place to...**

 **'static'**

 **...anyways here's the sto-**

 **'static'**

 **'Error: Transmission lost'**

 **'Input disclaimers'**

 **All OC and characters belong to their respective owners, anything else is owned by D.W.**

* * *

 **(Third-person POV)**

"Spread out! Make sure she doesn't escape!" a large knight with black armor and a flowing red cape shouted to his much smaller subordinates. Moments ago, one of their prisoners escaped her confines and was now trying to evade capture. The captive was last seen running into the dense forest.

Gun-wielding knights fanned out to search for the escapee. They looked everywhere, but couldn't find her.

If they only looked up...

Crouched on a high tree branch, was a woman with a green hood and cloak. Under that was a common hunting outfit, consisting of a dark green long sleeved shirt with a tan vest, camo green shorts, and dark green boots.

"I'm lucky they never tied my hands," she whispered to herself. "Or else I wouldn't be able to get up here," she looked around for any knights before climbing down. "But they took my bow and knife..." she started to sprint away from where the knights were gathered. "Wait a sec, my catche!"

As she ran through the forest, a black mountain lion appeared beside her.

"Sabre, be vigilant," she said to the lion. "We're outnumbered and I don't have a weapon,"

He grunted in response.

"Hopefully they never found my little weapon catche,"

After a few minutes of running, she skidded to a stop in front of an oak tree. She chuckled to herself, "And they said I never needed this," she said as she started to tap the tree. She tapped around the trunk until a part of it sounded different from the rest.

"Gotcha," as she opened the compartment.

It turns out that a portion of the trunk was hollowed out and camouflaged. Inside was a sleek, black colored bow with a matching quiver, as well as a small, curved dagger.

"How the tides have turned," she said to herself as she slung the quiver over her and grabbed the two other items. No soon as she did that a bullet missed her head by mere inches.

"There she is!" a knight said before falling to an arrow.

"Crap, Sabre let's go," she said as she took off, bullets flying after her.

What the knights didn't know was that, despite outnumbered, the woman had the advantage over them. Now that she has her weapon, they are as good as dead.

She ran through the forest with lightning speed, effortlessly dodging trees, rocks, and bushes that came her way. An arrow was notched and ready as she catapulted herself over a fallen tree and let the arrow fly. Metal cut through metal as the arrow hit it's mark, falling another knight. And another and another. But arrows weren't the only things these armored peons did not have to worry about- no- another thing was cutting through their ranks.

A horrified scream echoed throughout the forest as a knight was mauled to death by the mountain lion, his claws easily slicing through the armor. The lion shrugged off the bullets hailing down on him, ignoring the feeling of pain as it sank his teeth into the next victim.

As the last of the screams died down, the forest was quiet once again. But she knew there was one left, hiding.

And hiding is the worst thing one can do to when facing a hunter.

Her eyes turned from their normal shade of brown to bright emerald green, as they did so the world around her tinted green, her already heightened senses became increasingly aware of her surroundings.

Then she heard it.

The faint and shallow breathing of the last knight.

She turned in the direction of the breathing, her eyes found a faint outline of the knight, hiding behind a thicket of bushes about twenty yards away. She drew back the string.

The knight never had time to see it coming.

With the last of the threats taken care of, the huntress breathed a sigh of relief. She could rest easy for the moment.

"Sabre, you ok?" she asked as she scratched under his chin, causing the big cat to purr.

 **'SNAP!'**

She quickly turned to the source of the noise, and slowly made her way to it. Ready to pounce like the predator she is.

* * *

 **(Heather's POV)**

I should have thought out my plan to save mom a little more through, but whatever.

When I rammed the knight we both fell through the portal, and I kinda blacked out as I did so. I don't know how long I was out, but it wasn't that long was it?

I hope.

I woke to a bird chipping and I hope that whatever happened was just a dream (though I really hoped that some of the things that happened so far was actually real). I expected to be back right in my room, but that wasn't the case.

I was in the middle of a forest.

Yes, you heard that right.

A mother trucking forest.

Teufort is far from a forest, heck, does New Mexico even have a forest for crying out loud?

"Where am I?" I muttered to myself as I got up and adjusted my hat, I'm surprised my hat was able to stay on my head the entire time. I also found my pistol that I was using during the battle next to me as well. I picked it up and checked the clip.

Five bullets, and I have no extra clips.

"Only five...gotta make my shots count," I wasn't a marksman like Uncle Mundy, but I am a decent shot with most of the weapons the my uncles used.

The knight that fell with me was nowhere to be found so that's a good sign right? Anyways, I'd decided to lay low and keep a low profi-

 **'SNAP!'**

Well shit.

I looked down to find I stepped on the only branch on the ground.

"Are you kidding me?" I muttered. I didn't have much time to curse myself as my instincts kicked in and ducked down just in time to avoid an arrow entering my skull. From the time I've spend with my uncles, I've kinda gotten good at dodging things. Especially when Jane and Tavish start to argue.

And guess who has to clean up after them.

I aimed my pistol back where I thought the arrow came from. I looked around for any signs of movement in the brush and trees.

Then I felt something or someone was behind me. I whipped around to find a black mountain lion about to pounce on me.

"Holy cow!" I shouted as I emptied all the bullets I had in my pistol at the large cat. The lion shrugged off the bullets and knocked me to the ground. It snarled at me, its teeth glistening in the low light.

I struggled against the lion to ensure that it wouldn't rip me to shreds. I punched it in the throat, causing it to let up slightly, allowing me to get it off myself. I started to crawl away from the lion only to get a face full of dirt as it jumped on me again.

"Get off me!" I yelled.

"He'll only bite if you keep struggling,"

Though it didn't seem like a good idea, I decided to follow whoever said that, less I get mauled to death in some unknown place. I felt the pressure lessen on my back and I quickly got to my knees.

"Get up now and you're dead," the voice continued.

I bit my lip. Out of the sides of my left eye I could see someone walking into my view. It was a female, judging from her voice, and she wore a similar green hood and cloak like Jackie, but she was wearing totally different clothes, was a bit taller, and I don't think she wields a bow.

"Who are you?" she asked me, her green lit eyes making contact with my red colored eyes.

"W-why should you know?"

"So, I can decide whether or not to put an arrow through your head,"

I gritted my teeth as one of her arrows glimmered in the light.

"Heather,"

* * *

 **(Unknown POV)**

"Heather," the girl said to me. My eyes darted around, looking at the girl. Two things bothered me about her: one was her eye color, something just felt uneasy about her blood red eyes, and two, the fact she was able fight off Sabre with relative ease. She doesn't look like someone who has fighting experience.

"So Heather," I said. "What are you doing out here?"

"I doubt you would believe me if I told you," she said. "Besides, I don't even know where I am right now,"

Hm, I wonder...

"Did you happen to fall through a big, blue colored portal of some sorts now?"

"Yeah! Wait, how do you know-?"

"Let's just say I'm "aquatinted" with folks like you falling through those things,"

"Can you get me back?"

"No...sorry," I was going to say something else when I heard movement behind us. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a bunch of those knights through the trees with my Hunter's sight. I grabbed her hand. "C'mon! We need to go!" before she could say anything we were off.

As I raced through the forest with Heather in tow, I said, "Oh, name's Swift and that's Sabre," I motioned to him. "Huntress and Tracker for the Allies,"

* * *

 **(Wheel's POV)**

"Ok, how much fucking people do they have?" I yelled as another knight fell to my blade. We've been holding off the endless onslaught of knights and dragons for the past hour and it looks like it wasn't dying down anytime soon.

I teleported behind some cover to catch my breath, the fighting went on for at least a couple of hours right now, and we sustained many casualties on our side. Civilian evac was taking way to long right now.

"Wheel!" an Officer yelled. "All civilians are off the planet! But how are we going to get outta here?"

"I don't know!" I yelled back.

An explosion went off somewhere in front of me and an bloodied arm fell on the Officer, who quickly shook it off him.

"Who's still alive?"

"We've got a couple Gunners, a Sharpshooter, five Shield Soldiers, a Commando, and a Rocket Troo-ahhh!" the Officer was suddenly snapped up by a dragon.

"Shit!" I was about to leap up to intercept the dragon when an bright green arrow entered its skull. It came crashing down, landing on some of the knights.

"Looks like we've came just in time, didn't we Wheel?"

I looked behind me to find a certain huntress and her mountain lion as they ran up towards me.

"Swift, I thought..."

"Was caught? Long story short, whatever toxin they used to knock us out didn't affect me," she said. "I couldn't help the others, I only had time to knock out the knights that were guarding me before the alarm was raised,"

"We can talk about what happened later," I said. "First we- who's that?" I pointed to the girl behind her.

"Oh this is Heather," Swift explained. "She's supposed to be the daughter of the RED Pyro and Engineer, you know, the ones that were involved with the "Rift Incident"?"

"Why's she here?"

"You know those knights?" Heather said. "Yeah, they kinda attacked us and I kinda fell into a portal so yeah..."

Attacked? Oh god, I hope Jackie and Skyla's ok, but then again...

"We'll talk about this later, right now we're evacuating anyone still left on this planet," I said. "Swift, help any soldiers that are still here, and make sure she's safe. Oi! Kid!"

"I have a name!"

Oh the sass...I like it.

"You know how to shoot right?" I asked her as I pulled out a submachine gun and shoved it into her hands.

"My parents were mercs," she said as she grabbed the gun.

"Good," I hurled over the cover and ran towards the hoard of knights.

"What about you?" Swift yelled as I ran into the fray.

"Don't wait for me! I'm going to buy everyone some time, now go!" I shouted back as I leapt towards an armored dragon.

"I'll make a nice bag outta you!"

* * *

 **(Third-Person POV)**

 **Meanwhile back at the abandoned RED HQ**

"BWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Ana brawled as tears streamed from her eyes.

"Ana, Heather's a strong girl, she'll be fine," Dell said as he tried to console his significant other.

"BWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

After overcoming the initial shock of losing Heather to a portal, the five were able to defeat the remaining knights and close up any more portals. The victory was quite hallow, since the love and joy of Ana's life was now gone.

"Jackie, is anything you can do to find Heather?" the Texan asked.

The green hooded girl shook her head. "Sorry Engi, I wish I could but I can't,"

"Why not?"

She snapped her fingers and a projector screen appeared next to her. A picture of a normal rift with two exits appeared. "First off, the rift that the knight came through wasn't a simple rift, it was more like this," the picture changed to a mess of a rift with multiple exits. "This is what we call a major rift, which means she could end up ANYWHERE," she snapped her fingers again and the screen disappeared. "All we can do is hope she landed in a dimension that isn't hostile,"

Ana suddenly grabbed Jackie by her collar, "Hope...hope! My daughter is in some godforsaken place and you say the only thing we can do is to HOPE?!" at this point, Ana was literally on fire, the others backed away and prayed that she didn't hurt the teen too much.

"Look, I'm sorry about your daughter, but I cannot do ANYTHING to get her back. That is out of my capabilities right now,"

Ana gave Jackie a hard stare before letting her go. She walked out of the room in a huff, Dell tried to follow her but was stopped by CV.

"Look, Dell, I think it's best to leave her alone for now," the robot said. "Trust me,"

He looked where Ana left before turning around and sighing.

* * *

Ana's emotions clashed inside her. Anger easily dominated her mind, leaving her full of rage. She punched a hole through one of the crumbling walls before landing another, and another, and another, until the wall looked like Swiss cheese. Slowly, that fire died inside her and was replaced with sadness. She slowly slumped to the ground, tears filling her eyes once again as she wept into her hands.

"W-w-w-w-wh-y-y-y..." she manage to choke out.

After weeping for an unknown amount of time, she felt something soft next to her. She looked to find the slime girl, Skyla, curled up next to her. Ana cracked a small smile to her.

"Hi there," she said.

"I hope you're not angry at us," Skyla said.

"I'm not," Ana said as she stroked Skyla's "hair". "I'm just...disappointed I wasn't able to save Heather,"

"Aunty Jackie says she's disappointed too, but I think she's just as devastated as you are,"

The two sat in silence.

"Do you mind if I hug you, like for a long time?" Ana asked sheepishly

* * *

"So you don't know where the others went?" Jackie asked Dell.

The Engineer shook his head. "Ah wish I knew exactly, but I think Soldier lives around here, that's for sure,"

 _"Wheel makes everything look so much easier,"_ Jackie thought as she mentally groaned.

"I guess we have to start looking then," she said. "Where does Soldier live?"

"In some wizard's castle, ah believe," Dell said. "Don't ask, long story,"

"Ok...can you show me?"

* * *

 **Back at Allied HQ**

"Everyone fall back!" Swift shouted as she fired an arrow into the fray. "Get outta here!"

A swirl of purple appeared next to her. "Fancy finding you here, Swift,"

"Evie,"

The two women made no attempt to make eye contact whatsoever, as the two were preoccupied with the battle going on all around them.

"So who's this child you brought here?" the purple haired witch said as she fell a knight with pinpoint accuracy with a bullet to the cranium.

"RED Pyro and Engi's daughter," Swift responded. "Long story short, fell down an open rift, ended up here,"

"Shouldn't she be in a safer place?"

"I think she's handling herself pretty well," she pulled back on the string and shot off a green colored arrow.

"How can you tell?"

The huntress motioned over to Heather, who gunned down an impressive amount of knights already.

"Blood red eyes?" Evie questioned.

"Yeah, just like Pyro's when she's in her elemental form. And she's quite tough as well, took on Saber with ease. Most of our soldiers fall to him easily when they tussle,"

"Hm, interesting," the witch grabbed a nearby propane tank and hurled it at a group of charging knights. She took aim and fired.

 **'BOOM!'**

"Where's lunatic number two?"

"You mean Joli's _boyfriend_?" Evie said with a chuckle. "He should be somewhere in mess of things, as usual,"

A large, blue colored explosion followed by a maniacal laugh drew the two's attention.

"Oh there he is,"

 **Meanwhile in the fray**

Wheel's blue bladed digi-katana cut through one of the giant knight's large broadsword with ease. He followed up with slash that not only cut through the knight but also the several knights behind him. He repositioned the katana in his hand before sprinting over to another group of knights. He brought back his arm for a slash only to be met with an explosion right in front of him.

Teleporting a few feet back so he wouldn't get caught in the blast radius, he shouted to the perpetrator, "Hey watch where you're aiming, furball!"

"Then stop running where I'm shooting!" a tall, anthro. fox said as he landed next to the Allied leader. He was about at least a foot taller than Wheel, and looked extremely muscular. He wore tattered tan pants, and a green tanktop. Drenched in sweat that soaked his clothes and his copper colored fur, he used his left hand to wipe the sweat off his face. He would've used his right hand, but it was currently being used as a energy cannon.

Yes.

His arm is a FUCKING energy cannon.

"ME?" Wheel shouted. "Why should I watch where I'm running, can't you just shoot elsewhere?"

"Uh no,"

"Really..." the hooded figure sweatdropped as the camera panned out to show other areas of the battleground where the fox could've shoot.

Wheel pinched his nose. "Why do I even put up with you anyways, Kaori?" he muttered as he facepalmed. "Just-just be more careful, ok... and he's gone,"

The fox was already off and causing more mayhem throughout the battlefield. Spreading pain, explosions, blood, explosions, body parts, explosions, and more explosions just for the hell of it.

"And I guess that's why everything thinks he's Joli's boyfriend,"

* * *

 **(Heather's POV)**

Right now two emotions are running through me. The first is how fucking terrified I am right now. This is nothing I've experienced in my life, like what I saw (or rather heard) at Teufort of what my parents and uncles do PALES in comparison to this. Like I can't imagine how anyone can sleep after a battle like this, there is no way.

People are getting mowed down by swords and bullets (huh, never thought those two would co-exist in the same tim- oh wait never mind). Dragons mauling the utter daylights out of people. Just a clusterfuck of things I really want to unsee.

But in all honesty, I wasn't actually terrified.

I was having the time of my life. Let's see...

Adrenaline's pumping- check.

Heart pounding- check.

Multiple life and death situations- check and double check.

Despite being mercs, my parents would not had allowed me to do the things I was doing right now. Safety and my well being perhaps?

Whatever, anyways, I'm digging this SMG that Wheel (what a weird name) gave me. Never runs out of ammo for some reason, but who cares? I hate reloading. Guess that's something we can agree on huh?

So right now I'm gunning down anyone that looks hostile. I'm actually surprised how much knights I've taken down so far. I kinda expected to be doing way worse than this.

"Heather!" I turned to find Swift rolling into cover next to me. "Come on, we're getting out of here,"

"Got it! Am I going back to...?"

"Not yet, we have to get out of here first, then Wheel's going to send you back,"

"Sounds good,"

 **"EVERYONE FREEZE!"**

Suddenly the room turned a shade of blue, I looked out from my cover to find the enemies frozen in place. I was surprised to find all the Allied personal weren't frozen in place like how the knights and dragons were.

"Uh what was that?" I asked Swift.

"I stopped time," Wheel said as he walked up to me. "We better get going, time won't stay like this forev-"

But then there was a flash of light that blinded me. When it disappeared I found myself standing in front of an ice-encased Wheel.

"Wheel? Swift, what-?" I turned to find Swift frozen in place as well. "Guys, what's going on?"

I soon discovered I was the only person not frozen in the mist of all this.

"Hello? Anyone there NOT frozen?"

Silence only responded.

"And there goes my way home...gah," before I continued to pout I heard something. I instinctively raised my SMG and scanned the room.

"Hey, kid," I whipped around to find a purple haired woman wearing a brown trench coat and fedora. She held a rifle in one hand. "You ok?"

"What happened? Why is everyone like this?"

"I don't know, but something's telling me something's going on, and it's not good,"

"How can I trust you? What if you work for them?"

"If I did I would be frozen already," she said.

"Got that right," a tall orange colored fox said as he walked up to us. I noticed that his arm was a cannon of some sorts which suddenly morphed back into an arm. "I thought only the knights got frozen,"

"Who are you two?" I asked.

"Evie," the woman said. "Fox guy is Kaori,"

"Sup," he said.

"You do look like your mother, don't you? You even have her...assets, heredity perhaps?"

I blushed slightly. Yes I have big breasts, and yes Mom does have large ones as well. I'm pretty sure any woman would kill for these...things. Why did I have to choose to wear such a tight shirt today?

"Kaori, stop ogling. You already have your special someone,"

"...huh what?" the fox blinked before turning red. "I wasn't looking..."

"Yeah right...be mindful she's only fifteen perv," the purple haired lady said.

"You're only fifteen?" Kaori asked in disbelief. "You look way older,"

"Yeah I get that a lot," I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

 **'ROAAAAAAAAR!'**

"Uh oh, that does not sound good," Evie said. She turned to the frozen Allies. "There's another dragon outside, but we can't leave everyone here. Kaori how much time will it take you to take everyone here to the evac?"

"Give me five minutes,"

"Fair enough, Heather, go with Kao-"

Before she could finish, the magma colored reptile decided to make an early entrance into the base. It spewed an orange colored fireball at us. Kaori grabbed me and jumped out of its way just before it exploded harmlessly on the ground.

"-and help him defrost everyone, and Kaori, you better work fast," Evie said as she dropped her rifle. A purple aura surrounded her hands as a large golem made of stone appeared in front of her. She noticed that he wasn't moving. "Stop staring and get to work, dammit!"

* * *

 **(Third-person POV)**

"Ok for a second there I thought you were pulling my leg about the castle part," Jackie said as she and Dell stood outside Merasmus' castle turned Soldier's home. It was a small castle, slightly larger than an average house. It wasn't the cleanest though, as Jackie could tell from the abundance of raccoons and trash around the place. "Besides the raccoons and trash, I think this looks like a great place to live,"

"Yup," Dell replied.

"You know, I think I should change what wearing right now,"

"Why? I think you look fine right now,"

"Yeah but, the way I'm dressed right now makes me look like I'm in some kind of cult or something,"

"And exactly how are you going to do that?"

"Um, super magical being here, helllllo?"

With a snap of her fingers, her cowl (it's the hood, fyi I'm calling the hood this now) and cloak shortened and became a green, unzipped jacket. Her top half of her armor turned into a red colored shirt with black sleeves, while the bottom half became black colored jeans. Her boots stayed the same.

"There we go," she said as she took off the hood of the jacket. Her face was slightly tanned, and she had green eyes with golden brown hair in a ponytail. "What?"

Dell blinked. "Uh...nothing, it's just...you kinda look like Heather,"

"Hmph, coincidence?"

He went up to the door and knocked. "Soldier! It's me, Engi! You in there partner?"

No answer.

"Soldier?"

"YES?"

The two jumped as Soldier appeared out of nowhere behind them. "Hello there!"

"Soldier, never do that again," Dell said as he caught his breath.

"Sorry about that Engi! I didn't expect you to react in such a way," he looked at Jackie. "Who's this maggot?"

"Remember the Allies, Soldier?"

"..."

"Hoo dear..."

"Let me help you," Jackie said as she snapped her fingers in front of Soldier's face. "...and now we wait,"

"What did you do?"

"I just brought him up to speed by replaying memories in his mind. Wonder why I've never did that with you and Pyro, would've saved some time,"

"Holy mother Mary Joseph...Private Heather is gone! WE MUST MOUNT A RESCUE MISSION!" he picked up Dell and Jackie. "ONWARD MEN, I WILL NOT ALLOW HER TO BE BRAINWASHED BY THE COMMIES!"

"Soldier! Wait!"

"Put me down!"

Their screams and yells didn't faze the patriot as he ran down the road towards the direction of the RED HQ.

* * *

"How long was she hugging me for?" Skyla asked CV.

"Uh, I think...this," he flashed a time on his monitor.

65 minutes 4 seconds

"And I thought Arachne was attached..." she mumbled.

"Sooo soft..." Ana said as if she was in a trance. "You smell like blueberries..."

"Is this normal for her?"

"Yeaah, pretty much,"

Suddenly Ana stopped stroking Skyla's hair, she sensed something else with them. She narrowed her eyes.

"Something's with us," she said as she let go of Skyla, much to the latter's relief.

"Really? I would've detected someone if they came here already,"

"Check again then, cause I got a feeling someone else is here," Ana said as she stood up.

"Yeah...I was thinking the same thing too,"

The three turned to find a white, human sized dragon slowly hovering in place behind them. It's large blue eyes stared back at them. "So what's this "someone" we're looking for?"

"Auntie Diane!"

* * *

 **Hello? This thing on and working now? We rolling?**

 **We are?**

 **ALLLLLLLLLRIGHT!**

 **I'm back! Sorta but I'm not dead!**

 **Final exams for the semester is coming up for me so don't get too riled up for more chapters, but they will come out, slowly but surely they WILL come out.**

 **Till next time,**

 **-D.W**


	6. Interlude: Bio Sheets pt 1

**'SMACK!'**

 **Jackie: Ow...I guess that's why Wheel tells me I shouldn't put rifts like that.**

 **'notices readers'**

 **Jackie: Oh hi! Sooooo instead of having you to wait for the next chapter, I've decided to show you readers. 'pulls out folder' Ta da! Improved bio sheets courtesy of me! Don't worry about the confidentiality, most of the sensitive information has been edited out.**

 **'starts looking through folder'**

 **Jackie: Uh oh, I only packed a few. Darn, well, guess you guys are stuck with this until I get the rest.**

 **Ciao!~**

* * *

 **Desperado "The Cowboy"**

 **Real Name: {REDACTED}**

 **Species: Human (?)**

 **Height: 6' 2''**

 **Weight: 220 lbs**

 **Age: {REDACTED} (looks 28)**

 **Bio: Not much is known about this mysterious, and deadly mercenary that worked with his twin sister in an unidentified mercenary group. However, he became disillusioned after {REDACTED} and left the group with his sister and became a wandering vigilante. His aim with his revolver and his CQC skills are nothing to fool around with.**

 **First Allied contact: {REDACTED} Is one of the original founders of the Allies.**

 **Abilities:**

 **Slight health regeneration.**

 **Superhuman-like reflexes and strength.**

 **Marksman.**

 **Possible fire elemental.**

 **Teleportation.**

 **Appearance: Traditional cowboy garb, with a short flat hat and a poncho covering the right half of his body. Face cannot be seen but can see his blue, glowing eyes. Eyes change color according to mood.**

 **Weapon(s): A weapon that looks like a .44 Magnum. Able to pierce anything except for crystal.**

* * *

 **Swift & Sabre "The Tracker"**

 **Real Name: {REDACTED}**

 **Species: Human**

 **Height: 5'6''**

 **Weight: 135 lbs**

 **Age: {REDACTED} (looks 26)**

 **Species: Mountain Lion**

 **Height (on all fours): 3.5'**

 **Weight: 235 lbs**

 **Age: Unknown**

 **Bio: Abandoned in the forests of dimension {REDACTED}, Swift was raised by a pack of wolves under the watchful eye of the forest god, {REDACTED}. She quickly grew up and became one of the deadliest creatures to live in the forests. Feared by animal and man alike, she suddenly found herself quite lonely. However, she was able to find companionship with Sabre, a black mountain lion with the same reputation as her. Together, these two make up for each other's weakness, Sabre making sure no one gets too close, while Swift takes care of those far away. Her aim is impeccable and her arrows have been known to kill even the most protected of targets.**

 **First Allied contact: {REDACTED}**

 **Abilities:**

 **Hunter's vision- an ability that heightens her already heightened senses.**

 **Marksman (with a bow)**

 **Capable of using magic (?)- arrows can split into three individual arrows or turn into a light projectile.**

 **CQC expert**

 **Escape artist**

 **Appearance- Wears green cowl and cloak. Under that is a common hunting outfit, consisting of a dark green long sleeved shirt with a tan vest, camo green shorts, and dark green boots. She has brown hair and eyes to match and has A- cups breasts. In Hunter mode, ie activated Hunter's vision, her eyes turn a shade of green.**

 **Sabre is a black as night mountain lion, with glowing yellow eyes.**

 **Weapon(s): Bow and arrows. A steel bow with matching arrows, can only be notched by an expert archer. Able to pierce metal with ease.**

 **Dagger. Short 5 in. knife.**

 **Additional notes: Sabre can appear next to Swift at anytime, anywhere, any place. Cannot be explained. Swift refuses to explain further.**

* * *

 **Shiv "The Knight"**

 **Real Name: N/A**

 **Species: Possessed suit of armor/Spirit**

 **Height: 5'10''**

 **Weight: 250 lbs**

 **Age: Unknown**

 **Bio: Not much is known about this magical suit of armor other than he is close friends with Doug, brother in arms to be more specific. Found in dimension {REDACTED} along with Doug, these two are quite the duo despite their differences. Desperado can only hear what he says for some reason. He communicates through Morse Code or sign language. Since he's a spirit, he isn't affected by things that would harm most creatures. His broadsword can only be wielded by him and he's quite nimble, as well as sneaky, for a suit of armor he is sure as hell quiet.**

 **First Allied contact: {REDACTED}**

 **Abilities:**

 **CQC expert**

 **Appearance: A silver suit of knight's armor that sometimes shimmers blue. Has a large plumage of blue feathers on his helmet.**

 **Weapon(s): Broadsword. Around 7 feet in length.**

* * *

 **Jewel "The Cowgirl"**

 **Real Name: {REDACTED}**

 **Species: Human (?)**

 **Height: 5' 6''**

 **Weight: 145 lbs**

 **Age: {REDACTED} (looks 25)**

 **Bio: The younger sister of Desperado. She shares a similar appearance and attitude as him, but is slightly more upbeat. Even without a scope on her rifle, her marksmanship makes her just as deadly as him. She's known to outshoot some of the best snipers in the multiverse. Similar to her brother, not much is known about her either.**

 **First Allied Contact: {REDACTED}. Is one of the original founders of the Allies.**

 **Abilities:**

 **Slight health regeneration.**

 **Superhuman-like reflexes and strength.**

 **Marksman.**

 **Possible fire elemental.**

 **Appearance: Traditional cowboy garb, with a Stetson and a poncho covering the right half of her body. Wears khaki shorts instead of brown pants. Has two blonde pigtail sticking out from her hat, and has C-cup breasts. Face cannot be seen but can see his blue, glowing eyes. Eyes change color according to mood.**

 **Weapons(s): A weapon that looks like a Winchester Rifle. Cannot pierce crystal.**

* * *

 **Jaz and Joli "The Twins"**

 **Real Name: Jasmine "Jaz" Prowl**

 **Species: Human**

 **Height: 5'10''**

 **Weight: 176 lbs**

 **Age: {REDACTED} (looks 24)**

 **First Allied Contact: {REDACTED}. Is one of the original founders of the Allies.**

 **Abilities:**

 **Superhuman strength**

 **Explosive expert**

 **Enhanced durability**

 **Enhanced regeneration**

 **Berserk- Sends strength/durability/and regen into overdrive.**

 **Appearance: Wears a gray sweatshirt with a bulletproof vest over it, jeans, and sneakers. She wears a combat helmet with goggles on the helmet that covers black hair. Around her neck is a blue bandana. Her baggy sweatshirt hides the face she's muscular and she has E-cup breasts.**

 **Weapon(s): Double chambered rocket launcher. Assorted explosives.**

 **Real Name: Jocelynn "Joli" Prowl**

 **Species: Human**

 **Height: 5' 10''**

 **Weight: 171 lbs**

 **Age: {REDACTED} (looks 24)**

 **First Allied Contact: {REDACTED}. Is one of the original founders of the Allies.**

 **Abilities: Wears a red tanktop with a bulletproof vest over it, wears green shorts, and combat boots and has D-cup breasts. She wears a green baseball cap with her black hair under it. Around her neck is a red bandana. She's just as muscular as Jaz is.**

 **Superhuman strength**

 **Explosive expert**

 **Enhanced durability**

 **Enhanced regeneration**

 **Berserk- Sends strength/durability/and regen into overdrive.**

 **Appearance:**

 **Weapon(s): Modified M79 Grenade Launcher. Assorted explosives.**

 **Bio: These twin demolition sisters, with Jaz being a couple minutes older, probably had explosives and unpredictableness in their blood from the time they were born. Daughters of a timid explosive expert named {REDACTED} and a hardcore, dedicated soldier named {REDACTED} from dimension {REDACTED}; their lives were turned upside down at age five when their parents died at the hands of an unidentified terrorist group. However, their parents were badass enough to kill all the terrorists before they succumbed to their wounds. An unknown time later, unknowingly following their parent's footsteps, they somehow found themselves in the military as soldiers and explosive experts. The two were then forced into a super-soldier like program by the government, which was a poor decision on behalf of the government. The two went AWOL after killing every scientist in the facility and became fugitives on the run. Despite wielding explosives, one is much better off facing explosives from afar than these two up close. Just don't.**


	7. UPDATE! PLEASE READ!

**Hello again. First off, I'm not dead. Secondly I want to talk about this story.**

 **Now considering where it is right now...I'm highly considering a complete rewrite of what is going on so far.**

 **Why?**

 **Here's why:**

 **1\. Large cast. Because of the amount of characters in this story, I really want to be able to express each character to his/her/its full potential. Right now I am not getting that at all, and it seems that they are just standing there.**

 **2\. WTF is a plot? After going over the story mentally, I am unable to get a clear picture or sense of where to go, or what the hell is going on, especially after the third or fourth chapter. If I don't get it, chances are you won't either.**

 **Overall, these two points is the reason why I want to rewrite this story. All OCs will still be used so don't worry OC submitters.**

 **The new story will be titled: Down the Rabbit Hole  
Summary: A sequel to The Rift- Fifteen year old Heather Conagher lives a pretty normal life, well, a pretty normal life for someone who the daughter of two mercenaries. However, life for her can only get stranger when a badly damaged Galleon appears in the middle of the desert base. Who are these people claiming to know her parents and uncles? And what is going on exactly?**

 **-D.W**


End file.
